Rage Against the Mentor

Harry: Do you—do you think I want to—do you think I give a—I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU'VE GOT TO SAY! I don't want to hear anything you've got to say!
Dumbledore: You will. Because you are not nearly as angry with me as you ought to be. If you are to attack me, as I know you are close to doing, I would like to have thoroughly earned it.

— Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Curse that Cryptic Conversation-loving Trickster Mentor! His insistence on being vague and mysterious to look "cool" is costing lives because Poor Communication Kills. Maybe they told one too many things "From a certain point of view" with said point of view being self-serving at best. Or maybe he's pulled some very morally dubious stunts that border on, if not cross over into, hypocrisy and their student just found out. Well, the protégé isn't going to stand for it! He's Calling the Old Man Out on his vagueness with cries of "I want answers! Now!" or "You lied to me!"

Whether the mentor did it because he's trying to protect his protégé from knowledge he doesn't need to know, or would expose him to danger, or reveals the good guys as bad, the net effect will actually be to endanger the hero and hamper his attempts to capture the villain.

Expect the aloof mentor to defend his arguments by saying You Are Not Ready, or that he told the hero "what he needed to know, not what he wanted to know", that their Omniscient Morality License means that no harm was done, or even he was being Metaphorically True. Whatever the case, if the mentor doesn't immediately dish out some good Backstory or Exposition after being called out, then his protégé will turn his back on the mentor for breaking his trust and being disrespectful and irresponsible with the lives of others.

When the mentor does this to their protégé, it's What the Hell, Hero?. When the mentor deliberately incites their protégé to rage against them, it's Drill Sergeant Nasty.

Rage Against the Mentor is the usual outcome of being mentored by The Svengali, though this does also depend on how bright and/or strong-willed the protégé is.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Code Geass: C.C. does this in regard to the nature of Geass and her own past. Then again, Lelouch doesn't try hard to crack her most of the time, since he's busy with other things. When he does try to make her talk, C.C. usually gets out of it by reminding Lelouch she's his trustworthy co-conspirator. In reality, she's trying to use him to get out of her curse of immortality.
• Dragon Ball: Tien Shinhan has every reason to hate his former Martial Arts masters, Master Shen and Mercenary Tao for their harsh and abusive training methods. Tien is even given the opportunity to humiliate Tao in the World Tournament, but he shows as much respect and restraint as possible, trying to get Tao to forfeit multiple times until Tao voluntarily breaks tournament rules by slashing his former pupil's chest with a hidden blade. At that point, Tien decides that Tao, and by extension Shen, are Beyond Redemption. After he scores a victory against Tao, Tien demands that they never show themselves to him again.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS: Resident Badass Normal Teana does this to her mentor Nanoha (and almost drags Subaru into it, as well) when she grows frustrated of seemingly not making any progress because Nanoha "deliberately holds her back". It is often referred to in the fandom as the "White Devil Incident". Of course, this being Nanoha, it is resolved in a very heartwarming fashion and Nanoha's training eventually proves good enough for Teana to take out three Numbers at once, while injured, without any backup, whereas most other named characters have trouble taking them on one on one.
• Gundam:
  • Mobile Fighter G Gundam: Domon Kasshu is not happy when he finds out that his mentor, Master Asia, reveals that he has allied with the Dark/Devil Gundam and is using it for purposes unknown. Most of the series as Domon veering between wanting answers and simply wanting to kick Master's behind for his betrayal.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny: After ditching ZAFT and re-aligning with the Archangel crew, Athrun Zala finds himself dealing with Shinn Asuka, the young man he was attempting to teach how to be a soldier. Unfortunately, Shinn hardly ever gained any respect for Athrun, and when he runs from ZAFT, ultimately decides he has to die. Athrun is eventually forced to give the irrational, uncompromising Shinn a harsh reality check at the end of the series.
• Monochrome Factor: Akira's attempts to find out more about the Shin and Kokuchi are frequently rebuffed by Shirogane until Lulu reveals to Akira that Shirogane is a King of the Shadow. He then forces Shirogane to reveal that Akira is the reincarnation of the King of the Rei, or light.
• In Prétear, Himeno demands that the Leafe Knights tell her the origins of the Princess of Disaster. When they eventually break down and tell her the truth, she's so stunned by the backstory that her confidence drops drastically and for a time she can't even use her powers—which just proves the Knight's reservations in the first place.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica: In the entirety of the show's run, Kyubey has been yelled at, nearly got speared, shot to death, gotten hurt, and figuratively got demoted to garbage man through a loophole-abused wish by four of the five Magical Girls, because they purposefully hid details that the people they make contracts with should be aware of, details that can drive someone to suicide, so the girls are naturally not happy regardless of Kyubey’s good intentions or logical argument.
• Reborn! (2004): A villainous example is found with Xanxus towards the Ninth. Being an extremely violent and ill-tempered Spoiled Brat, he overreacted to the discovery of the Ninth not telling him that he's actually not the Ninth's child, and therefore can't become the next Vongola boss. To the point where he readily tricks Tsuna into accidentally killing the Ninth with little remorse or regret.
• Samurai 7: Katsushiro does this after having been disillusioned by his mentor, who he had previously been holding up as a paragon of samurai virtues.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Fed up with all the secrets and mystery, the new Darker and Edgier Judai threatens to flush his ^note formerly Treacherous Advisor's Spirit Advisor's spirit down the toilet in Season 4 unless he gets some straight, concrete answers.

Comic Books

• Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise: Roku keeps telling Aang he needs to be decisive and kill Zuko, and if he contemplated the world he would see that he needs to do this. So Aang contemplates the world, and sees the people he loves, including Zuko, while getting sick of Roku's vague advice ("What did you expect me to picture? Some floaty cosmic energy?"). He realizes that Roku's worldview of how the four nations must be kept separate is outdated and decides there's nothing more he can teach him, so he severs his spiritual connection to him.
• Batman: Every single freakin' Robin, though Tim does so the least and is generally rather unnervingly calm when he does call Bruce or Dick out. And most of the Batgirls at some stage. It's especially poignant since Batman is also a father figure to most of them.
  • Subverted in one issue of Outsiders. Dick is furious at Bruce for what he believes was an attempt to exert control over the new Outsiders by providing them funding through a subsidiary of Wayne Industries and secretly providing Arsenal with intel. Bruce explains that he really was just trying to help the new team by funding them — they needed money, and he has money. Bruce just didn't want Dick to feel like he owed him anything. Dick calms down but says it was still wrong of Bruce to pass on intel to Arsenal without telling him. Bruce responds by telling Dick that he hasn't spoken to Arsenal for over a year. Dick immediately calls Arsenal to warn him, only to find out that Arsenal is currently meeting with "Batman". Whoops, I mean Deathstroke.
• Bone: Thorn has a very violent reaction to Gran'ma Ben's explanation of her past, culminating in a two-and-a-half book suicidal streak that was only halted by Fone Bone and Smiley Bone's You Are Not Alone speech.
• In Superman/Shazam!: First Thunder'', Superman does this to the titular wizard after he finds out the lantern-jawed hero is nothing more than a 10-year old boy. Especially one who just went into a mad rampage after his best friend got killed.
• X-Force: Flagship character Cable inspired this from his first band of followers, the Six Pack. A big fan of I Did What I Had to Do at the time, Cable abandoned the Six Pack on a fateful mission that resulted in two of the Pack's members (Garrison Kane and Hammer, the former of whom was Cable's protégé) being crippled. Understandably, the Pack held a bitter grudge against Cable afterward, though, unlike Xavier above, he was eventually able to right his wrongs somewhat (he saved Kane from Stryfe, gave him new prosthetics from the 40th century, and offered to restore Hammer's spine) and make peace with his former friends.
• X-Men: Cyclops went on a slow-burn one of these in the 2000s towards his mentor, Professor X, as more and more evidence of Chuck's long history of Superdickery started to pile up. The straw that broke the camel's back was X-Men: Deadly Genesis, in which Cyclops found out that Chuck not only sent a secret third squad of X-Men to their deaths against the island monster Krakoa (among them Cyclops's own long-lost brother Vulcan), he also in the aftermath wiped the minds of Cyclops and all the other X-Men to forget that Vulcan's team ever existed. Understandably, Scott was pissed. So pissed, in fact, that he booted Xavier out of his own mansion!

Fan Works

• An Alternate Keitaro Urashima: Granny Hina's plans to make Keitaro take over the Hinata Inn go Off the Rails when he learns about how she'd converted it into an all-girls dormitory before arriving. When she tries to force them back on track, she's repeatedly called out on how she keeps trying to manipulate everyone around her. Sadly, Hina dismisses all of these confrontations, firmly convinced that everyone who disagrees with her methods is in the wrong. By the time she does realize her mistakes, it's far, far too late to make amends: She has lost the Hinata Inn, her entire family has completely cut ties with her and wants nothing to do with her, and the general public treats her with contempt for how she previously behaved.
• Child of the Storm has Dumbledore largely avoid this in favour of general ire being directed at the far more manipulative (i.e. Dumbledore is one of his many, many pawns) Doctor Strange, particularly by Wanda, his former student and essentially foster daughter, and Harry, his prime focus (and later student), for his manipulative methods and extremely selective attitude to divulging the facts. Strange counters by saying that was necessary (and it's indicated that he's right), but agrees and accepts that they have every reason to be furious with him.
• In Divergent Points - Feast, Plagg confronts Master Fu over how his methods have been hurting Marinette and Adrien: by choosing Marinette as his sole successor as the next Guardian on top of her duties as Ladybug, he's been drowning her under the weight of all her responsibilities. At the same time, he's kept Adrien Locked Out of the Loop, leaving him feeling isolated, and his decision to take Plagg away during the events of "Feast" served as a traumatic reminder of his mother's disappearance. Plagg also points out that while the Mutual Masquerade rule might be a good safeguard against Hawkmoth, both heroes had benefited more from knowing each other's identities as well as having Alya and Nino as confidants, especially when dealing with their issues. Fu realizes what he had brought upon his chosen heroes, and takes measures to not only apologize to Marinette and Adrien for how he treated them but also make their lives far easier.
• For His Own Sake:
  • As part of her attempt to convince Keitaro to return to the Hinata Inn and resume his duties as caretaker, Granny Hina reveals to him that Naru is his 'Promise Girl'. Unfortunately, this only helps him realize that she knew this little detail all along, and had deliberately withheld that information until she believed she'd benefit more from the reveal. He then calls her out for being such a Manipulative Bitch.
  • Naru lashes out at Seta when he tells her how disappointed he is that she used the skills he taught her to bully and terrorize others. Naturally, this is just another case of Naru refusing to admit that she's done anything wrong.
  • Keitaro gets a similar moment when Seta admits to him that he'd actually been using him as a way to get closer to Haruka.
• The Immortal Game: Once they're reunited, Twilight really tears into Celestia, calling her out on how she manipulated Twilight in order to mold her into her "perfect soldier". Celestia attempts to mend their relationship, but Twilight points out that she's still trying to manipulate her.
• The Lie I've Lived: After realizing that the Goblet of Fire wasn't being watched enough to prevent somebody from slipping his name in, Harry calls out Dumbledore on the lack of surveillance.
• The Negotiations-verse: Twilight loved and admired Celestia above all else, choosing to trust her mentor's judgment despite her own doubts. In Truth, she confronts Celestia about how this trust led to her losing practically everyone and everything else she'd cherished, and how Celestia had lied to, misled and manipulated her.
• In the Nice Guy Adrien AU Put the Cat Out, after Marinette resigns as Ladybug so that she won't have to deal with Chat Noir's gross sense of entitlement anymore, Master Fu confronts Adrien and attempts to recover the Black Cat Ring. Adrien refuses, outright attacking the Guardian while raging about how both Ladybug and Plagg belong to him, insisting that it's all Fu's fault.
• In The Night Unfurls, Sanakan and Hugh's flashback in Chapter 7 of the original subverts this trope. The two apprentices want answers from their Mentor in Sour Armor Kyril regarding the contract they've taken to become hunters. It is then Kyril hints that he himself has "changed beyond all human reasoning", or rather, he's not even human. Worried that they themselves may turn into something worse one day, Sanakan is just about to call him out, only for Kyril to stop her from doing so. He then reassures the two that such an outcome would not come to pass, explains the reasoning for taking the two as his students, and last but not least, opens up to them about his motive to fight against the Black Dogs. The end result is that Kyril gains Sanakan and Hugh's trust as a kind and honest mentor.
• Operation GEAR has Olivia unleash one upon Matt after learning that he'd been hiding how Rich had died from her.
• Parting Words diverges from the show's canon when Twilight calls Celestia out on her Trickster Mentor tendencies and withholding of information and resources that could have easily solved prior conflicts. In particular, she spells out that Celestia could have gotten her and her friends killed on several occasions, and when Celestia makes the mistake of revealing that she intended her latest mission to be a Secret Test of Character, well...
  Celestia: You have been told all you need to know! I told you, this was to be a test—
  Twilight: A test?! The fate of an entire kingdom at stake, and you want to make it a TEST?! All that tells me is that you already know the answers, and precisely how to fix it, and you just aren't telling me! I don't care what it is you're 'testing' me for. Forget it, I don't care! The welfare of other ponies is supposed to come first for a ruler, no matter what. So either tell me everything I need to know, or find somepony else to do this, because I'm not going to imperil hundreds or even thousands of innocent ponies trying to get a gold sticker from you on a TEST!
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Silver Resistance: Scythe is initially regarded as The Ace; over time, however, Char starts calling him out on things that he disagrees with.
• In The Quest for Glory, Babs Bestie meets her old mentor Terry, who now regards her as one of his biggest regrets, as he believes he brought out the worst in her and turned her into a Competition Freak. Babs disagrees with his assessment and lashes out at him.
• Snap Before You Break: Izuku hits his Rage Breaking Point upon learning that Aizawa expects him to work with the utterly uncooperative Katsuki for their final exam, calling him out on how he's made no effort whatsoever to curtail Katsuki's stubborn attitude and expects Izuku to work with his Barbaric Bully and iron out the issues that Aizawa has refused to address. This builds into him taking Aizawa to task for his failure to support anyone in Class 1-A, having fostered an atmosphere of distrust with his "logical ruses". Later, he learns that Principal Nedzu intentionally let this go on in order to see whether Izuku would stand up for himself and his classmates, and calls him out as well.
• Team Hanabi: Redress has Ichigo snap and call out Chatot for how poorly he handled the Perfect Apples incident, spelling out that she hasn't trusted him ever since.
• Three's A Crowd (Naruto): Kakashi repeatedly refuses to address Sasuke and Uo's Ineffectual Loner tendencies, dismissing it as simply "boys being stubborn and stupid" while expecting Sakura to whip them into shape, despite how both boys blatantly ignore and disrespect her. Sakura repeatedly calls him out on his flagrant Double Standards, eventually spelling out for him that she refuses to be the only one trying to wrangle Team Seven into something that can legitimately be called a team:
  Sakura: Despite what you may think, I don't need this team. There are at least four medics at the hospital that would likely take me on as an apprentice, especially if I showed them the skills that I've already taught myself. So from now on, I will not be the only one to put any effort into this team. Either you do your job as a sensei and make them work as a team, or you break up the team and call it a failure.
• Truth and Consequences: Thanks to Master Fu's mismanagement, Ladybug and Chat Noir both became deeply resentful of each other — Ladybug felt that Chat Noir never took anything seriously and was spared all of the responsibility that Fu heaped upon her shoulders, while Chat Noir hated being Locked Out of the Loop and wanted to be treated like an equal rather feeling like her "sidekick". As it becomes increasingly apparent to the other heroes how much of this stems from Fu's poor decisions, they grow increasingly frustrated with the old Guardian. By the end of the story, they all despise him, but feel forced to keep him around anyway due to his knowledge about the Miraculouses.
• Vow of Nudity: Spectra's warlock patron spends multiple stories tricking her into doing increasingly catastrophic things without her knowledge or consent. After her actions ultimately lead to an entire neighboring kingdom descending into bloody politically-driven anarchy, she finally starts screaming about how she's never going to trust or help him ever again, even after he's plucked her to safety and left her in the center of her hometown.
• The four in With Strings Attached are not pleased when the Fans (mostly Jeft) refuse to tell them important things, like, for example, why did George's ring stop working for a while? They do a fair bit of protesting against this behavior. Luckily for them, Shag takes their side and overrules Jeft's attempts to be mysterious. Jeff believes himself justified because mystery makes for a better game.

Films — Animated

• Kung Fu Panda: Tai Lung feels betrayed by Master Shifu as the latter did nothing when he wasn't chosen as the Dragon Warrior, despite training Tai Lung from childhood for that.
• Megamind: Titan becomes enraged at Megamind's refusal to join him as a crime team, dating the woman Titan is stalking, and "Lying to Space-Step-Mom!"

Films — Live-Action

• All the President's Men: After Woodward and Bernstein screw something up and lose credibility, Woodward demands that his source (Deep Throat) start revealing real information.
• Towards the end of Catching Fire Katniss is so furious with Haymitch that she attacks him with a needle. The reason? Going back on his promise to save Peeta over her by making sure they rescued Katniss while Peeta was taken prisoner by the Capitol.
• Dragonheart: The hero spends years training the prince to be an honorable knight, only to discover years later that the prince was just a bully who couldn't care less about honor when the prince attacks him.
  Einon: Lay down, Bowen! You're the sad remains of dead systems and dead beliefs!
  Bowen: They were your beliefs!
  Einon: Never! Never mine!
  Bowen: (heartbroken) But... you spoke the words...
  Einon: I vomited them up because I couldn't stomach them! Because I knew it was what you wanted to hear!
  Bowen: No! I taught you!
  Einon: You taught me to fight, that's all! I took what I needed from you. You taught me to fight!
• The Matrix: Averted. Neo and Morpheus realize that the Oracle has been holding out on them and ask questions but they're not angry because her telling or not telling them things is usually for the better. Cypher, on the other hand, plays it much straighter—and to its logical extreme. He despises Morpheus’s vagueness, his loyalty to the Oracle, and above all his refusal to be upfront about everything. He fully believes that, had Morpheus been honest about what would happen if the Red Pill was chosen, no one would have chosen it, leading to his eventual Face–Heel Turn.
• Mystery Men: Mr. Furious gets sick of The Sphinx's gobbledygook and manages to corner him:
  Sphinx: Your temper is very quick, my friend. But until you learn to master your rage...
  Mr. Furious: Your rage will become your master? That's what you were going to say, right? Right?
  Sphinx: ...Not necessarily.
• Rocky In the first movie Balboa lashes out at Mickey, but they quickly make up and Mickey helps him "not be a bum".
• Star Wars: A classic way of saying Metaphorically True:

  Obi-Wan Kenobi: So what I told you was true, from a certain point of view.

  • Although by the time Luke Skywalker is able to talk to him properly, he's calmed down from hearing the Awful Truth (it has been a full year, after all) and the conversation is civil.
  • In the original novelization, Yoda states before his death that "Obi-Wan would have told you (that Darth Vader is your father) long ago, had I let him...", which renders Luke's railing at Obi-Wan immediately thereafter somewhat redundant.
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Sentinel Prime, Optimus' mentor and father figure, turns out to be a traitor in league with the Decepticons and trying to enslave humanity to rebuild Cybertron, going against everything he taught Optimus. Optimus confronts him about it, but Sentinel merely replies with his Well-Intentioned Extremist beliefs that rebuilding Cybertron is more important than humanity's freedom. Optimus doesn't accept that and ultimately executes Sentinel for what he's done.
  Sentinel: Optimus... all I ever wanted... was the survival of our race. You must see... why I had to betray you.
  Optimus: You didn't betray me. You betrayed yourself.

Literature

• The Belgariad: Fairly early on, Garion rages against his "Aunt" Polgara, whom he's recently discovered to actually be a centuries-old sorceress of nigh-unsurpassed wisdom and power, who quite clearly isn't actually his aunt... Granted, there really are a lot of rather significant things she isn't telling him, for reasons that aren't really explained anywhere in the series itself (it's All There in the Manual, though, or in this case, the stand-alone Polgara The Sorceress faux-biographical tome), but he was still somewhat out of line, claiming that lives of 'ordinary people' like him were mere pawns and playthings to her. Especially considering that she's spent the last several centuries personally safeguarding his line...
• Deus ex Machina: Mentor the Arisian is the target of wails of angst from one of his advanced students in Children of the Lens, when she's told that the breeding programme she's the ultimate expression of makes her "...in some ways, even less human than I am myself..."
• Deverry: Rhegor gets this from Nevyn after Brangwen and Gerraent die. Subverted in that the laws of dweomer say that someone has to ask the right questions in order to learn the information that Rhegor was withholding. Nevyn also gets this a few times (sometimes for less reason), and Dallandra catches a few hits too. Meanwhile, Salamander does withhold information at times, but it's not to someone he has a mentor-type relationship with.
• The Dresden Files: Harry Dresden does it to his mentor Ebenezer McCoy, specifically in Blood Rites. The catalyst is the reaction McCoy and a mercenary named Kincaid have upon realizing that Dresden has recruited both of them for an attack on a bunch of Black Court vampires. Later, Harry confronts McCoy, who tells him the truth about his job — that he's the Blackstaff, whose job is basically to do the White Council's dirty work. That pretty much means ignoring all of the principles and values that Ebenezar always taught Harry to uphold, and the resulting shock to Harry causes him to shun McCoy for at least three books.
  • In Proven Guilty, Harry and Ebenezer take steps towards a reconciliation a couple days after Molly's trial when Harry realizes that someone had to have spoken on his behalf during his own trial, despite the fact that Ebenezer claimed not to have been present.
  • Not only that, but Harry's been the mysterious mentor for an awful lot of people, especially Murphy, and he never lets himself forget how much trouble they could avoid if he only told them the forbidden Lovecraftian information.
  • In Ghost Story, Molly (Harry's apprentice in magic) feels this way towards Harry after his ill-considered suicide leaves Chicago unprotected against supernatural onslaughts, and inadvertently begins Molly's Start of Darkness. She's long since reached a Despair Event Horizon, so her attitude is less "angry" than "melancholy and utterly disillusioned" but it still feels like this trope.
  • Then there's Harry's relationship with his first mentor, Justin DuMorne. Harry's career began by killing the mentor who tried to turn him into a Tyke Bomb.
• Galaxy of Fear: Hoole is the Arranda's uncle and guardian, and he's extremely secretive and doesn't like telling them anything for the first six books. When they find out what he's been hiding they both rage at and abandon him, then later come back to help him. For the rest of the series, he's still The Stoic but has a much better relationship with them, and no more big secrets.
• Harry Potter: The titular protagonist tries this on Dumbledore a few times.
  • He really lets Dumbledore have it in The Order of the Phoenix, after an entire year's worth of bad communication ends in the worst way possible. Dumbledore recognizes that not giving Harry the information was "an old man's mistake", and asks for the chance to explain just how badly he messed up.
  • Averting this becomes the plot for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Sure, Dumbledore didn't spell it all out immediately, but he was giving Harry more help and equal treatment than several other vague mentors put together. If it hadn't been for his love of the Gambit Roulette, he might have revealed it all to Harry by book's end.
  • In the final book Harry confronts him with the fact that even then, there were still things being kept from him. Harry doesn't need to scream here; Dumbledore's guilt is written plainly on his face; he breaks down and cries.
• The Hunger Games: Katniss spends a lot of the third book angry with Haymitch for not fulfilling his promise to rescue Peeta, letting him become a prisoner of Capitol in favor of saving Katniss. Peeta's not very happy with him either at that point.
• Journey to Chaos: The overarching plot of Looming Shadow is Eric raging against Dengel and the immense shadow he casts over all mages, himself included, because he literally wrote the book on magecraft but was a horrible person.
• Old Scores: When Salem slaughters all of Simon's tentative human friends, Simon retaliates by nailing Salem to a boxing ring with his own sword.
• In Quantum Gravity, Lila gets a bit of this against Sarasilien, when she finds out that he was lying to her about quite a lot, the tipping point being the fact that he lied about his name. She gets over it as much as she can when he readily admits to lying to her and says that, though he cannot tell her everything, he can tell her when there is something he can't tell her.
• The Riddle Master Trilogy: The mysterious and highly ambiguous Deth borders on being a Treacherous Advisor.

Live-Action TV

• A stellar example of this appears in Babylon 5, in the third-season episode "Interludes and Examinations." After a season and a half of evasions and mysteries from Dungeon Master Kosh, Captain Sheridan snaps and refuses to back down until Kosh gives them the help they need, ignoring all dire warnings and accusations of impudence. This example plays out with more subtlety than most, as neither Sheridan nor Kosh is definitively wrong in this confrontation: it's portrayed more as a conflict between two characters of strong will, who think they know what is best, and a case can be made for both of them. And then Kosh dies, as he knew he would after providing direct assistance to the anti-Shadow alliance.
• Daredevil (2015): Matt Murdock meets the mysterious Stick - the man who trained him in martial arts, for the first time in nearly two decades, and his first response is to punch him in the face for abandoning him as a child. Stick then quips "Anything else?", and Matt replies, "You're a dick". The second season when Elektra comes calling for Matt reveals that she was also tutored by Stick as well, and seemingly has a better relationship with him until she decides that she wants to be more than his human weapon and severs ties with him. She later tries to kill him personally, though at that point, Stick ordering a hit on her understandably pissed her off. Even if we later find out some very good reasons why she's better off dead.
• Merlin: Merlin seems to have had little enough patience with the Great Dragon throughout, but in the last episode, he turns on the Dragon for good after learning that its sole motive in helping him was to secure its own release.
  • Well, considering what the Dragon does after being released, his hesitation is more than justified. Even more, when Merlin asks the Dragon to promise not to hurt Camelot, the reptile refuses to promise anything.
• The X-Files: Mulder confronted Deep Throat about this in the first season finale. Of course, Deep Throat's motives were always open to interpretation.
• Kamen Rider has done this a few times. To list off the examples...
  • Kamen Rider Double has Terui Ryu attacking Shroud after finding out she's the one who gave Isaka the Weather Memory, which enabled him to murder Ryu's entire family. Her response after a brief fight and a reveal was that she didn't know Isaka would be so insane that he'd be out of her control when she gave the memory to him and her giving Ryu the Accel Driver was her Plan B for getting back at her husband. She also apologized.
  • Kamen Rider Fourze had a similar story of The Rival fighting his mentor in the form of Sakuta Ryusei. Though this time, the mentor has a darker connection. He's The Dragon for Big Bad, manipulating him from the beginning. It didn't help that just a while ago, the mentor sent away, for lack of a better term, his girlfriend to a Phantom Zone. Though the fight is rather curbstompy what with the mentor's ability to just summon a Dark Nebula and sending people there whenever he pleases. He does manage to send Ryusei and his friend back after he realizes that ruthlessness isn't as powerful as friendship.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer angrily decides that Giles has "taught her everything [she] needs to know" when it's revealed that, behind her back, he had been plotting the murder of the ensouled Spike. This would probably have happened much earlier if Buffy had ever found out that Giles also murdered Ben.
• Star Trek:
  • This sometimes gets crossed with the Insane Admiral trope whenever an admiral who goes rogue gets a verbal beatdown from an officer who served under him. Examples include:
    • Commander Riker yelling at Admiral Pressman for his experiments with an illegal cloaking device.
    • Captain Sisko yelling at Admiral Leyton for attempting a military coup against President Jaresh-Inyo.
  • An episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation reveals that a Secret Test of Character at one stage in Klingon martial arts training is for the master to repeatedly challenge the student to do something impossible so that after repeated painful failures the student will eventually do this and prove that they're mature and self-respecting enough not to trust their superior uncritically and put up with abusive behaviour. This fits perfectly, given that they are the trope namer for Klingon Promotion.
• Wil and Bandon in The Shannara Chronicles both spend most of Season 2 being absolutely furious at Allanon. Wil resents him for not revealing the fact that Amberle's quest would end with her having to make a Heroic Sacrifice to restore the Ellcrys, while Bandon blames him for pushing him too far and too fast in his magic studies and thereby getting him spiritually captured by the Dadga Mor, resulting in him being corrupted by demon magic - which in itself is implied to fuel his anger. In both cases, Allanon's defense is that He Did What (He Thought) He Had To Do.

Multi-Media

• In BIONICLE, the Toa protagonists got tired of how the Turaga elders only ever delivered their exposition after a new menace had arrived to besiege their villages, and questioned their trustworthiness. Thankfully the Turaga anticipated this and had a heated argument between themselves on whether to confront the Toa and the rest of the islanders with the truth. Thus when the Toa arrived demanding answers, they were ready to offer them.

Professional Wrestling

• Mr. 450 turned against his mentor, Invader #3 at the World Wrestling League's 2014 Navidad Corporativa event for interfering with his sneak attack on Sensacional Carlitos.

Tabletop Games

• In the backstory of Warhammer 40,000, the primarch Alpharius of the Alpha Legion rebelled against the Imperium mainly out of resentment and anger towards Roboute Guilliman, his brother and teacher who looked down on Alpharius' dishonorable tactics. Also possibly a factor in Horus' rebellion against the Emperor.
  • Arhra's rebellion against the other Asur was also strongly implied to be inspired by this trope.
  • Angron held a deep grudge against the Emperor for teleporting him out the day just before the Slave Rebellion, saving only him and leaving his own men to die (and making him look like a coward). Eventually, he and his chapter pledge their allegiance to Khorne really quick.

Theater

• A good chunk of Christine's part in the final trio of The Phantom of the Opera involves her doing this to the Phantom.

Video Games

• Assassin's Creed: After Altair realizes that there's more to the nine men that Al-Mualim is having him hunt down, he announces he's fed up with getting riddles and cryptic words from both sides.
  Altair: You said the answer to my question would arise when I no longer needed to ask it. So I will not ask. I demand you tell me what binds these men!
• In the Dynasty Warriors: Gundam games, Kamille Bidan from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam has this reaction when meeting the Fallen Hero version of his mentor Quattro Bajina (actually Char Aznable) from Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.
  Kamille: Lieutenant Quattro! What are you doing all the way out here?
  Char: No, Kamille. I am Char Aznable. No more, no less. I have only friendly intentions.
  Kamille: How do you plan on facing those who trusted you?
  Char: ...
  Kamille: Answer me, Char!
• Averted by Auron in Final Fantasy X, who was always forthright about the nature of Sin. It was Tidus who didn't want to hear it or realize it, so Auron never went out of his way to cram it down Tidus' throat (though Auron did goad him with the knowledge to slowly force him to accept it).
• Homeworld Cataclysm: The Hopeless Boss Fight against the Bentusi race for fleeing instead of helping against The Beast Eldritch Abomination, ending with the commander of the Kuun-Laan shaming them into helping with an emotional "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days: it is Axel's evasiveness about Xion and Roxas' natures that directly leads to Roxas' leaving the Organization. For the most part, Axel keeps the information under his hat because he believes it to be something Roxas ''really'' doesn't need to know. That doesn't stop it from undermining Roxas' trust in him, though.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: if Master Eraqus had simply told Terra that "Xehanort is evil and he's using Ven to further his plot" instead of outright attacking Ven while Terra watched, the two of them might not have had to fight each other, and unfortunately, this Rage Against the Mentor went a bit farther than most did. To his credit, he does seem to realize he's made a mistake and both of them are immediately regretful.
• In the Knights of the Old Republic games, and other accompanying media, this is pretty much the catalyst for Jedi involvement in the Mandalorian War- and thus, the reason for the Jedi Civil War.
• Persona:
  • Persona 3: After doing some research into a mysterious explosion at their school ten years prior to the game's setting, Yukari Takeba calls out Mitsuru Kirijo, a fellow member of SEES and resident Ojou, on knowing more than she's letting on about the Shadows. Mitsuru reveals that the Kirijo Group, her family's corporation, had been conducting secret experiments on Shadows using the school as a secret laboratory. The experiment went out of control, and the resulting explosion dispersed the Shadows across the city. Mitsuru tries to justify her withholding of this information by saying that it "never seemed relevant."
  • Persona 5: In one of the few cases where the calling out is more than justified, Yusuke is furious when he discovers his adopted father Madarame sees his students as nothing but fuel for his own ego and career. It turns to complete hatred when he finds out Madarame let his ill mother die to steal her last painting and take credit for it. Then adopted her son, Yusuke himself, to take advantage of his own artistic talents.
• The Walking Dead has a way more downplayed version. In some episodes like number four of season 1, Clementine shows herself to be more independent. As you go looking for boats in Savannah Clem will come to your rescue no matter what. This shows that she doesn't trust Lee as much as she should, though her decisions did indeed lead to Lee escaping his predicament alive. Then, at the end of episode four, Clem goes missing. No, the Stranger did not kidnap her. In season 2 if you confess to Luke what happened it'll show that Clem ran away from Lee just to find her parents.

Web Animation

• RWBY:
  • Having seen the impact on former allies, Ozpin keeps many secrets, fearing that the Awful Truth will destroy people's hope. A friend betrays him to Salem and Ironwood turns on him in Volume 2. In Volume 5, Raven fails to talk Yang out of helping him, who instead demands his honesty from then on. In Volume 6, the heroes confront him once and for all, learn the Awful Truth and turn on him, causing him to break and retreat in despair. After struggling with the dilemma of whether to tell Ironwood the full truth, they learn the hard way that trust and truth are more complicated than they appreciated. In Volume 8, they reconcile with a repentant Ozpin, admitting they finally understand his situation; however, his role permanently changes from leader to advisor.
  • After Qrow learns the Awful Truth about Ozpin in Volume 6, his shattered Undying Loyalty sends him into a downward alcoholic spiral until he becomes The Load. After trying to shut down the heroes one too many times for trying to get the Relic of Knowledge to Atlas, Ruby snaps and yells at him that they've done remarkable things without adult help, so they're going to continue whether or not he approves. When he later berates himself for letting them continue, Ruby firmly tells him they would have carried on without him and they're no longer his responsibility. Although he sobers up and their relationships repair, the arc is the end of Qrow's role as Ruby's mentor.
  • After Winter escaped her abusive father by joining the military, General Ironwood became her mentor, grooming her to become a Special Operative and right-hand woman. Ironwood's downward spiral into authoritarianism during the Atlas Arc sees her increasingly struggling to justify and support his decisions until she events defects to the heroes' side. When they fight, he lashes out at her "betrayal" while she declares him an enemy of the kingdom he once swore to protect; their relationship is severed for good.

Webcomics

• Captain SNES: The Game Masta: While Alexander Williams has yet to get many concrete answers from Bob, he has called him out for his secrecy to the point of suplexing him into a table.
• M9 Girls!: Pato lets the Professor have it when he confesses the real reason he hired them as his interns.
• Mob Psycho 100: Mob eventually gets fed up with Reigen overworking him (particularly when some friends ask him on a night out and Reigen brushes it off as them trying to take advantage of Mob) and takes a break from exorcising to teach him a lesson. They do reconcile, but after Reigen gets a good dose of character development.
• The Order of the Stick: Roy calls out the ghost of his father for giving him a crucial but extremely vague piece of advice that could have led to a Total Party Kill had it been misinterpreted. His father justifies this by pointing out that if he had phrased it as a direct command, Roy would have refused to do it on principle. Given how Roy feels about this particular mentor in general, he's probably right.

Web Original

• Worm has a version of this in Taylor's decision after Armsmaster outs that she is a mole in the Undersiders.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Zuko had a habit of doing this toward Iroh, particularly in Book 1, but it was often played for laughs. However, in "The Ember Island Players", when showing the events of "Crossroads of Destiny", Actor!Zuko delivers a massive one to Actor!Iroh. Although the real Zuko never actually said anything like that to Iroh in the events of the actual episode, Zuko clearly regrets how he had treated Uncle.
  Actor!Zuko: I hate you, Uncle! You smell, and I hate you for all time!
  Katara: You didn't really say that, did you?
  Zuko: I might as well have.
  • Aang does this to Jeong Jeong when he gets frustrated with Jeong Jeong's teaching methods, including not letting him actually firebend yet. Jeong Jeong proceeds to calmly explain what happened when his last student failed to learn restraint.
• Ben 10: Alien Force: The climax of the Hybreed Alien Invasion Myth Arc involves Ben Tennyson raging against his mentor Asmuth over the issue of finding a non-lethal solution to their invasion, with Asmuth asserting that killing them is the only option.
• In the DC Animated Universe, Dick Grayson quitting as Robin and becoming Nightwing instead was a result of one of these. Although the two patched up things somewhat later, Batman Beyond implies he's still somewhat bitter about this, seventy years later.
• Used by the kids in the Dungeons & Dragons (1983) episode "The Dragon's Graveyard", when despite their mentor's protests (they're planning to... ahem, take care of Venger once and for all), they get some straight answers from Dungeon Master regarding Tiamat and their own weapons.
• Twilight Sparkle gets a very short one of these, barely a scene long, in the third season episode "Keep Calm and Flutter On" of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. When Celestia brings Discord to Ponyville and tells the Mane 6 that she expects them to reform him Twilight promptly screams a query of Celestia's sanity right in the Princess's face.
• The Owl House: Towards the end of season two Luz Noceda, already near a breaking point, loses it when she finds out Eda plans to send her and King away from the impending fight. It's bad enough that Luz attacks her own mentor and mother figure.
• Spider-Man: The Animated Series: At the end of "Turning Point," Spider-Man has had enough of Madame Web's cryptic and unhelpful nature, especially when she states she can't/won't retrieve Mary Jane from the dimensional limbo the Green Goblin sent her to, and explodes on her, screaming at her to leave him alone. She obliges, only returning come the show's final arc.
  Madame Web: This is the path you chose for yourself. To do things on your own. Once that decision is made there is no turning back. It is yet another thing that you have to learn.
  Spider-Man: Learn?! I am tired of you... and your riddles. And your lessons! And your SUPREME ARROGANCE! Don't you ever, EVER enter my life again! Do you hear me? DO YOU HEAR ME?!
• Young Justice (2010):
  • Red Arrow vehemently called out the Justice League (by extension, Green Arrow) and quits, seeing that the Justice League didn't take him seriously and treated him only as a sidekick. Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad did a minor one, where they threatened to leave also. The League relented and The Team was born.
  • Aqualad/Kaldur'ahm in the second season, against Aquaman, for having lied to him about the identity of his true father, Black Manta, for years, which plays part in his Face–Heel Turn. Turns out he's undercover and it was at least partly an act.
  • The original Roy Harper blames Ollie for letting him be kidnapped, maimed, and replaced. He also calls him out on giving up on him while his own clone picked up the slack and rescued him. He finishes it up by calling Ollie useless. After this, combined with Artemis faking her death, Ollie is crushed and considers himself to be the worst mentor ever. Red Arrow then inverts this trope and gives Ollie a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech.
  • Interestingly enough, it's averted when Dick Grayson becomes Nightwing. Here, it isn't because he's angry at Bruce, it's because he felt the need to grow up and become his own man and because he's now the team leader.

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